In 1966 – three years after his landmark “I Have a Dream” speech – the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the Baccaulaureate address to the graduating class of Bryn Mawr College.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bryn Mawr College President Katharine McBride in 1966.

Invited at the request of the graduating class, Dr. King spoke extemporaneously, leaving no written record of his speech. But in a letter thanking him for his appearance, then-President Katharine McBride described his presentation as “thoughtful and very forceful.”

“Those of us who had the interest of hearing you last night were much impressed,” McBride wrote, adding “I think you know that we had been waiting to hear you for a long time. We are most grateful for the opportunity.”

The opportunity to hear Dr. King had been postponed by two years: in 1964, the graduating class had requested him as their Baccalaureate speaker, but he had been unable to attend.